FEELINGS

In July of 1998, I was involved in a TV pilot produced for Comedy Central called "Half Hour Network." One of the show's segments is "Feelings," a satire of soap operas, with marionettes as the lead characters. I designed, coordinated, built, and puppeteered for this project.

Above, two views of the character Alec, who I puppeteered.

It was a frantic build -- the crew of people working with me and I built 9 marionettes in 11 days (honest!). The heads were first sculpted in plasticene, then covered with a papier maché shell, which was removed and put back together. I sculpted the hands and feet from Sculpey. The torsos, pelvises, and legs were jointed wood, and the arms were stuffed fabric. To complicate things, all the puppets had to have moving mouths, and 2 of them had to undergo costume changes, which meant re-stringing the puppets mid-shoot! Eesh!

To view more photos of the marionettes, click on the links below.

["Half Hour Network," "Feelings," and all puppet names and likenesses © Comedy Partners]
[Photos private collection of Rick Lyon. Unauthorized duplication in any form strictly prohibited.]